Love Trumps Hate, Potlucks Trump Protests

Foodie movement Project Potluck provides a delicious, more positive reason to light your tiki torches.

In the wake of last week’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Calgary food blogger (and recipe guru to our sister publication Western Living) Julie Van Rosendaal, shared the following sentiment online:“I posted something on my personal Facebook page a few days ago—an open wish that we could somehow reclaim those viral images of awful people bearing tiki torches and replace the anger with joy, and fill peoples’ hands with casseroles and curries, and baklava and pie—heading to a backyard barbecue or picnic. To have peaceful pluralist potlucks and picnics everywhere, and use those garden torches to illuminate conversation and real connection. To gather people in our communities and spread the message that bigotry and hate are unacceptable, that love wins—and brings pie.”The post ends with an invitation to join Van Rosendaal for a picnic at St. Patricks Island in Calgary—but the message went far beyond that, spreading to foodies across Western Canada, including Angie Quaale of Langley’s Well Seasoned, who has since planned for her own #ProjectPotluck gathering to take place Sunday, August 20 in the gourmet food store parking lot. Guests are invited to bring a culinary dish of their choice—be it casseroles, dumpling or pies—to share, and will be given tiki torches to illuminate conversation.As Vancouver prepares for Saturday’s far-right rally and counter-protest at City Hall, the open event to celebrate humanity and acceptance—and a communal love of food—could not have come at a better time. For more information visit projectpotluck.net.

Project Potluck

Sunday, August 20 (5 to 7 p.m.)Well Seasoned Gourmet Food Store117–20353 64^th Avenue, Langley